


Fast

by grapenight



Category: South Park
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Humor, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Zombie Apocalypse, Zombies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-24
Updated: 2018-05-19
Packaged: 2019-04-07 06:02:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14074500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grapenight/pseuds/grapenight
Summary: Tweek has been alone in the Zombie Apocalypse for weeks, but an attack from a zombie changes his life.Based onthis post.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a zombie apocolypse AU, but it is pretty lighthearted, and not super serious, just a heads up. More tags and characters will be added as the story goes on. I hope you enjoy it!

Tweek was alone, and had been for a few weeks. He had gotten separated from his last “partner” (he wasn’t sure what the correct terminology was for the person who traveled with you purely for survival purposes) when said partner walked into a seemingly empty convenience store, and never came back out. Tweek had argued with him before he went in, telling him not to go in the store. Zombies weren’t smart, exactly, but they knew how to get food, and loved to make traps for humans. An empty and pristine store could only be a trap. And based on the screams he heard, after his partner had gone into the store despite Tweek's warnings, Tweek was right. Being an extremely paranoid person was actually a good trait to have in the zombie apocalypse, to Tweek’s surprise.

Tweek stayed around the store for a few hours even after the screaming ended, just in case his partner had survived, by some miracle, and came back out to find him. He wasn’t brave or stupid enough to go in to help the other man, but that was part of the reason why Tweek was still alive, after all this time. Eventually he had to leave, get out of the area all together, in case the zombies inside the store decided to venture out in search for more food. Tweek gave his former partner a silent goodbye, and went off on his own. 

Two weeks later, Tweek was still alone, following a small road, just for a guideline of somewhere to go. He didn’t have a solid plan, and he only had a small amount of food, but there was a small, drinkable stream nearby, so Tweek had an unlimited water supply. He didn’t have a specific destination in mind, he just walked on to hopefully find somewhere safe. Being alone was dangerous, and meant he couldn’t stay in one place for too long. 

If he was part of a large group of survivors, they could find an empty building and set up a permanent base. That was the dream, but it was getting harder and harder to find as time went on. Tweek had been a part of a base like that once before, and it was the best month of his post apocalyptic life. Nearly every night he had slept for 8 hours, always had access to food, and people to talk to whenever he got bored. It was almost fun to have a job to do every day, even if it wasn't necessarily entertaining. Some days he was on laundry duty, others he was on food gathering, sometimes he even had to prepare meals for everyone. The people he lived with were all fairly nice, and it felt like everyone was just happy to be alive and surrounded by other people. The community had ended tragically, though, when a large group of zombies had encircled their building, and attacked. The only reason Tweek had survived was because he was a fast runner, and had grabbed his pack and ran, not looking back. He didn’t know the fate of everyone else in the community, but since he had never seen them again, he had to assume they were dead. Tweek was a coward, but that’s what the constant threat of death does to a person.

Tweek was pulled out of his thoughts by a bird tweeting loudly, and he noticed the sun was starting to set. Sometimes it felt like the animals were looking out for him, and wanted to keep him safe. Luckily, animals weren’t affected by the zombie trait, so they couldn't be turned into zombies. Animals hated zombies, and were prone to attack them, so it felt like they were on the humans’ side.

A black car sat abandoned on the side of the road, and Tweek was pleased to find it was unlocked when he pulled on the handle. Cars were Tweek’s favorite place to sleep, because he could still see if something was coming, but he was able to lock it and sleep peacefully. The seats were also more comfortable than the ground, which was an added bonus. He thoroughly checked the car, to make sure nothing was hiding in it. Once he was sure it was safe, he climbed in and locked all the doors behind him. The car was fairly spacious, and Tweek was able to spread out comfortably over the backseat. He pulled a protein bar out of his backpack, and ate it slowly, to savor it, and hoped that it would fill him up for the night. Hunger was something he never truly felt until after the zombies. He wished he could go back and tell his past self how good he had it every time he had complained about being hungry. It was all about perspective, though, so he couldn’t be too mad at his past self. He would do anything to go back to those days. Tweek unfurled his sleeping bag and unzipped it, using it as a blanket. He fell asleep that night thinking about the past.

A loud scraping sound woke Tweek up the next morning, and he went rigid. It sounded eerily similar to nails scratching down the side of the car. He had heard a similar sound a couple times before, and the events that followed were always horrifying. It had to be a zombie. Tweek packed up slowly, moving as little as possible. He decided he would have to bolt as soon as he opened the door. He was fast, fast enough to outrun any single zombie, and he had the stamina to get pretty far away. His parents had forced him to join the cross country team, years ago, since he refused to join any other sports team. Turns out, Tweek owes them his life several times over for it, when the zombie apocalypse started two years ago. Who could have seen that coming? There were end of the world movies and stories all the time, but most people never really went out of their way to prepare for it. Especially not for zombies, because they were just a made up thing, like vampires or werewolves. Tweek wished they were still purely a fictional creature, and not something very real, and waiting to eat him, right on the other side of the door. Tweek focused on that, and mentally prepare himself to run. As soon as he was packed up, he took a couple deep breaths, and then flung the door open, and ran. 

He didn’t look around for the zombie, he just ran, as fast as he could. He made it about ten yards before he was grabbed from behind, and fell to the ground. A rotted, grey, smelly arm wrapped around his face, and he could feel the weight of the zombie on top of him. The get skin was missing in patches, and a strange gooey substance was leaking onto Tweek’s face, which would have made him sick in any other circumstance. This time he was too worried about his life, as he could feel the zombie leaning in to take a bite out of him. He tried to knock the zombie off, but Tweek was trapped and the zombie was bigger than him. He could feel the hot breath of the zombie on the back of his neck, and he knew he only had seconds left. Tweek’s life would be over, whether he was turned into a zombie himself or just eaten. He had to do something, fast. Time slowed, and Tweek knew he only had two options: get bit, or fight in any way he could. He saw the gnarly, rotting, grey arm, still in front of his face, and he knew it was his last option. He bit down.

The taste was even worse than he would have imagined, and the smell was unbearable up close. The zombie immediately stopped moving, and slumped down, a dead weight on top of Tweek. He was able to squeeze out from underneath the zombie. Instead of immediately running away, like every one of his instincts told him to, he turned to look at his attacker. It’s skin was forming back together, and turning from grey to a lovely peach color. The rotting bits looked like they were melting away, and there were patches of missing hair on its head were growing back. On its hands, the nails were black and jagged, but they slowly transformed into neatly kept, pink nail beds. The zombie now looked pretty damn human. Tweek couldn’t believe was he was seeing.

The thing (zombie? Human? Former zombie? Figment of Tweek’s imagination? Tweek had no idea what to refer to it as) turned over, and sat up. His green eyes scanned over Tweek, and landed on his face. They weren’t the dead, milky eyes of a zombie, they were lively and attentive. 

“What’s going on?” He asked, in a nasally, flat voice, very unlike the guttural groans and growls that zombies usual make.

Somehow, someway, the zombie was now human. Tweek tried to speak, and failed to create a coherent set of words. He took a deep breath, and tried to work out what happened. His eyes fell to the arm he had bit not even five minutes ago, which was no longer grey and rotted, but now whole and a normal human skin color, except for one bloody set of teeth marks that remained. 

Tweek had bitten a zombie, and it turned back into a human. His vision went dark, and he passed out.


	2. Chapter 2

“Hey, dude, are you awake?” Tweek heard a voice say. He assumed he was still half dreaming, because he hadn’t heard another human voice in weeks. He opened his eyes, and was surprised by the brightness. Usually, he woke up before sunrise, because in order to stay alive in the zombie apocalypse, you had to wake up early, and be alert during daylight hours. Zombies almost always attacked during daylight hours, unless they were disturbed at night. He tried to sit up, but he was pushed back down, immediately. 

“Don’t move too fast, you might pass out again,” the voice said, apparently not a dream. Again? Tweek had passed out? Then it all rushed back to him, the zombie, the bite, the human. He looked at the source of the voice, and, of course, it was the zombie. Used to be zombie, at least. Was he ever really a zombie? Maybe Tweek was hallucinating. He knew better than that, though, because even his wildest hallucinations couldn’t come up with that, and he definitely could never make up the taste of zombie flesh. It was the worst thing he had even tasted, Tweek gagged just thinking about it. The man patted him on the back consolingly.

“What the hell is going on?” Tweek asked, once he got past the gagging. He was so confused, and his mind was even more hazy because he had passed out.

“I was going to ask you the same thing,” the man (zombie?) replied, looking just as confused as Tweek felt.

Tweek sat up, slowly, and pulled his legs up to his chest, burying his face in his knees. The man can talk, and form coherent sentences. He didn’t eat Tweek while he was passed out. He skin was no longer rotting and grey. He didn’t even give off a nasty stench any more, somehow. He wasn’t a zombie, Tweek could confidently say. But he had been a zombie, that was for sure, and something weird had happened once Tweek bit him. 

“This is going to sound crazy,” Tweek began, “But I’m pretty sure I cured you by biting you. You were a zombie, you tried to eat me, but in a last ditch effort to stay alive, I bit you. And then you turned into this,” Tweek said, gesturing at the man.

Neither of them spoke for a few minutes. The man processed everything he had just heard, Tweek assumed, and Tweek used the opportunity to observe the man. He appeared to be around Tweek’s age, in his early twenties, though he was probably half a foot taller. His hair was black, and fairly neat now that he wasn’t a zombie. His skin was flawless, except for the bite mark from Tweek, which was on his forearm, on full display. His clothes were still in much worse condition than Tweek’s, torn and dirty. There were large patches of blood and dirt all over them, and Tweek didn’t want to think about where they had come from. 

“I can kind of remember some things, from before now. It’s cloudy, but I remember being hungry all the time. I remember eating,” the man shook his head and paused. “I’m pretty sure I was eating people. It’s terrible, and disturbing, but trust me, I was not in control of anything. I just had to eat. That’s all I remember, from recently at least. I remember from a long time ago, like growing up and school and stuff. Also I remember when the zombies first came. But then it gets cloudy.”

He looked like he was haunted by the vague memories he had of his past, and Tweek knew it must be horrifying. He had nightmares of his own, of people who died, directly, or indirectly, because of Tweek. The store that his partner disappeared into haunted him, and the base he had lived in at once, the faces of all the people he used to know, who were now dead, or maybe a zombie. Painful memories like that stuck in his head, and were always gnawing at the back of his mind. It was hard, and if he had been a zombie, knowing what comes with being a zombie, he knew it would be just as haunting, if not worse.

“I can’t imagine how you’re feeling right now, but I can tell you from experience, zombies aren’t human. There’s no human left in there to make any rational decisions. You had no choice, I promise,” Tweek said, trying to console the man. He was never great at making people feel better, but he had to try.

He looked up, and met Tweek’s eyes. “How long has it been, since it started?”

“Two years, more or less. It’s kind of hard to keep track of days anymore,” Tweek told him.

“Two years?” The man said, shock written all over his face. “I'm pretty sure it had only been five months, when things got blurry.”

He had been a zombie for over a year and a half, then. That had to be impossible for a person to wrap their head around. A year and a half their life, taken from them. Although, as Tweek thought about it, the man was human, again, which was probably better than being straight up dead. He got a second chance at life.

“How have you survived this long?” The man asked Tweek. 

Tweek shrugged, “I’m fast, and scared enough to be very cautious. And I’m lucky, I guess. You can’t survive without luck, not in these times.”

The man laughed, which was a surprising sound to Tweek. He hadn’t found very many things funny, especially not in the past few months, which had been harder than ever. “You are pretty lucky, now that I think about it. You survived a zombie attack by biting the zombie, that’s fucking crazy. I’m glad it worked though, because here I am. Wow. I’m Craig, by the way, we never really introduced ourselves.”

Tweek observed Craig, shocked by nearly every one of his actions. Everything that had happened that day had been completely shocking to Tweek, so he should probably just accept everything without questions. Zombies can turn into regular people, who are relatively nice. Anything could happen.

“I’m Tweek,” Tweek finally replied, preparing himself for the questions about his name that were sure to follow. He had a weird name, he knew that, but everyone always had to reinforce that fact to him. 

“Nice to meet you, Tweek. Not be an asshole, but I’m fucking starving, do you have any food?” Craig asked.

He didn’t say a thing about Tweek’s name. That’s a first. Apparently, food was more important than a weird name. Tweek respected that.

“I’ve got some brains, maybe guts, if you’d rather?” Tweek offered. 

Craig’s looked at him quizzically, before he realized Tweek was joking, and he started laughing. “I think I’m over the whole brains thing, at least for a little while.”

Tweek shrugged, “If you insist. I have some protein bars left, but that’s about it. I need to gather up some more food, very soon.”

“A protein bar would be great, I'm not picky, especially now.”

Tweek grabbed his pack, which had been sitting beside him, and pulled out two protein bars, one for him, and one for Craig. 

“It’ll probably be weird to eat this, it’s your first bit of human food in a year in a half,” Tweek said as he handed the bar over. “They don’t taste the best, but they’re food. We can go looking for some more food tomorrow.”

Craig nodded in thanks for the food, and ripped the packaging off, and ate the bar in three bites, not wasting any time. Tweek did the opposite, taking small bites, and slowly chewing them. He did whatever he could to make his food last longer, and he figured Craig would learn that, soon. 

“What’s life like now?” Craig asked once they were both finished eating.

“It’s pretty dark, to be honest,” Tweek replies. “Everyday, I wake up, maybe wash up in a stream if it’s safe, then eat some breakfast, as long as I have something to eat. Then I spend the day either walking, scavenging for food, or looking for somewhere safe to stay. Some days, I have to hide from zombies. Those days are the absolute worst, being scared for my life, all day, and second guessing every move I make, because one wrong move would get me killed. Life's lonely, now at least. It’s different if you’re living in a community of survivors, or even if you have one or two other people to travel around with. I’ve had both of those before, and life’s better like that, but people die, and then I end up alone again.”

They sat in silence for a few beats, before Craig sighed. “That’s fucking grim, dude.”

Tweek nodded, he knew it was. That’s life.

“It can change now, though, can’t it?” Craig asked. “You basically have the cure for zombie. You can change everything,” Craig pointed out. Tweek could tell he was excited, even though his expression stayed neutral, and his voice was still flat. 

Tweek hadn’t had the time to think about that before. Did he really have a cure? Or was it just a freak accident? Maybe Craig was an anomaly, and it would never work again. If he tried to bite a zombie, and it didn’t work, he’s surely be dead. “There’s no way to know if that would work on any other zombie. And if I tried it, I would probably die.”

Craig stares at Tweek, his eyes narrowed, which was unsettling to Tweek. “Dude. It’s the fucking zombie apocalypse. If you have the chance to fix it, you need to try. I can even help you out, I'll tackle the zombie, or something like that, and then you go in for the bite.”

Tweek shook his head, his heart pounding rapidly. His vision was beginning to blur aroudn the edges. He struggled to take a deep breath. He was on the verge of a panic attack. It was all too much pressure, all on him. It went against everything he knew about staying alive. But if it worked…

“I can’t talk about this right now, it’s too much, way too much. Let me just have some time to think,” Tweek pleaded.

Craig nodded, “Sure. Did you want to just stay here for the rest of the day?”

“Yeah, we can stay in the car, it’s safer in there.”

Even though it was still light out, probably mid afternoon, they both went back to the car Tweek had slept in the previous night, and climbed in. Craig let Tweek have the backseat, which Tweek appreciated. He laid down curling in on himself, still trying to calm himself down. Craig was in the passenger seat, reclined, with his eyes closed.

“Do zombies sleep?” Craig asked. “I can’t remember sleeping, but I don’t remember much at all, from the past year and a half.”

“I’m not sure if they sleep, but they’re less active at night, so they must be resting in some manner, Tweek replied. He wished there were still scientists left, people smarter than him who understood what zombies were, and how their bodies worked. Tweek barely passed biology in high school, he didn’t know anything useful.

“I haven’t slept as a human in a year and a half,” Craig said, as if he was trying to wrap his head around the idea.

“You must be pretty tired, then,” Tweek replied. 

Craig nodded, his eyes still closed, and sighed. “Yeah, I really am.”

Tweek listened to Craig’s breathing as it evened out and slowed down, and tried to match him. The more he focused on that, the more his heart slowed down, too, back to a reasonable pace. He knew, deep down, that he had to try to save everyone, and turn the zombies back to humans. As much as it terrified him, he had no right to put his own life above everyone else. He owed his parents, who had died early on in the apocalypse, while looking for food for their family, for Tweek. He owed everyone he had left behind at his base, every person who he didn’t fight for, but just fled instead. He owed Al, his survival partner who had died, who Tweek refused to join when he went in that damn store. He owed Craig, who he had only just met. He technically brought him back into this terrible world, he had to do what he could to make it better for him. He owed every zombie he had come across, every single rotting, decaying body that could potentially be turned back to a human. He owed them all, it was more important than his own life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed it! Sorry this took so long, my week was a bit busier than expected. Chapter 3 should be out much faster (I hope). Anyways, let me know what you thought about this chapter, or the story in general!
> 
> Follow me on Tumblr [here](http://louiswolves.tumblr.com/) if you'd like!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should stop posting chapters in the middle of the night. I know better than that. Here I am, though.

The next morning, Tweek woke up, feeling like shit, but honestly more well rested than he had been in months. Between passing out and going to sleep very early, he had gotten more rest yesterday than anything else, but it was possibly the most stressful day he had ever had, which was the cause of the headache. Overall, it wasn’t actually a bad way to wake up, he had definitely had much worse. No zombie attacking him as a wake up call.

Craig was already awake, and had pulled everything out of the glove department. He was reading the car manual, like it was an interesting book.

“Are you studying for a test?” Tweek joked.

“You never know if I’ll have to refill windshield fluid in the apocalypse, it’s good to be prepared,” Craig replied, closing the booklet.

“Oh yeah, makes sense, that’s a very useful bit of information, you won’t believe how many times I’ve had to do that. No better way to fend off a zombie,” Tweek said. He sat up in the back seat, stretching out his arms.

“How do you defend yourself, anyways?” Craig asked. “It doesn’t seem like you have anything to fight zombies off with.”

“I don’t,” Tweek answered. “I just run. It has worked really well, so far.”

“Hmm,” Craig said, and then fell silent.

Waking up, and finding another person nearby was strange. Tweek felt worlds safer, though. He missed having people around. For him, being alone with his thoughts was about the worst thing, because he could do nothing but think up the worst scenarios imaginable. But now, he could spend a lot of time observing Craig, and thinking about him. It might’ve been creepy, but he’d take being creepy over slowly driving himself crazy.

“Do you want to go look for some food?” Tweek offered. “I have a few protein bars left, but we should probably save them for when we really need them.”

“Sure,” Craig replies.

Tweek packed up his sleeping bad and checked the car over, making sure he wasn’t missing anything. He realized that Craig didn’t own anything, not anymore, at least, and they would have to find him some of the necessary items. A backpack was a must, and while the sleeping bag Tweek had wasn’t exactly a necessity, it had been very helpful in keeping him warm during the night. Craig also needed soap, and clothes, which might be difficult to find. They would have to find a house, or a store or something, and hope for the best. Tweek didn’t like going into houses or stores, because zombies like to hide out there, and wait for humans to . But they were the best places to find clothes, and soap, stuff like that. They’d have to risk it. 

“We’re going to have to look for a pack and stuff for you,” Tweek told Craig. “We can go look in a house for everything, and hopefully it won’t be full of zombies.”

“So what if there are zombies? That’d be a great chance to bite one,” Craig replied. 

Tweek shuddered at the thought, but nodded, “Yes, I suppose so.”

Craig nodded back at Tweek, “Cool. Are you ready to go now?”

“Yeah, let’s go.”

He could die today, because he half of him was convinced that the second he bit another zombie would be the end of his life. But he could have died everyday for the past two years, so he pushed the thought away. He was going to try to save the next zombie he saw, with Craig’s help.

 

 

It was a nice day, fairly warm, and the sky was clear blue. Tweek was pretty sure it was early summer, but the nights still got pretty cold, so maybe it was still spring. He missed knowing what date it was, and everything that came with it. Whatever season it was, it was good weather for walking. Tweek and Craig didn’t speak as much as they walked, but it was peaceful. 

Around mid morning, they came across another abandoned car. It was left on the side of the road, with one door wide open. A lot of cars were left around like that, and every time Tweek saw one, he wondered what happened to the owner of the car. Had they just left there car one day, and been attacked before they had come back to it? Had it been stolen from them shortly after the zombies first arrived? Had they been pulled out of the car and eaten? He’d never know, but he always wondered.

“We can see what’s left in here,” Tweek said, going to the open door and peering in, but not seeing anything in the front. “If there’s anything left.”

“Do you find stuff in cars often?” Craig asked as he looked at the back seat. He pulled what looked like a beanie out of the pocket on the back of one of the seats. “I don’t think this hat will do me much good, in this weather.”

“It depends, usually, I don’t find much food, but sometimes people will have like tools or blankets, something like that, in their cars. Check the trunk, there might be something in there,” Tweek said, pressing the trunk button, which he had found near the driver's seat.

“Oh, cool,” Craig said, pulling a bag out of the trunk. It was bright pink, and strangely shaped. Tweek realized it was a baseball bag, or maybe softball, since it was bright pink, because the handle of a bat was sticking out of one of the pockets on the side. “I’m keeping this.”

Craig set the bag down on the ground and started pulling things out of it, starting with the main pocket. First was a mitt, which he threw back into the trunk. 

“We won’t need that,” Craig said.

Tweek shook his head. “Not unless you really want to play catch.”

“I’m good,” Craig replied, tossing a couple softballs into the trunk, also.

“Are you really going to keep that bag?” Tweek asked. It was oddly shaped and pretty big. He wasn’t sure how practical it would be.

“Sure, why not,” Craig said with a shrug. “Oh, look, there are sunflower seeds. Sweet.”

He pulled out a handful of skinny sunflower seed packets, and based on the noise from the bag, Tweek assumed there were even more packs left in there.

“Wow, she was a big fan on sunflower seeds, apparently,” Tweek commented.

Craig dropped the packs back into the bag, and pulled out a few more things he didn’t want to keep. There was a pair of shorts that looked like they were a women’s small, which obviously weren’t going to fit Craig, and a shirt that was just as small. He also threw out some batting gloves, and a phone charger. He kept a pair of socks, which were bright blue and fuzzy, and a water bottle, which was empty.

“Oh, sweet,” Craig said. “There’s deodorant in here, I could definitely use that.”

He popped the cap off and sniffed it. He nodded approvingly, “It smells like vanilla. Nice.”

Once he had finished sorting out the main pocket, he zipped it up and went through the other smaller pockets, which didn’t have much, besides hair ties and chapstick. Lastly, he pulled out a bat, which was white with blue and purple designs on it, and had the brand Louisville on it. It wasn’t subtle at all. Craig set it back in the bag and zipped it back up.

“You’re keeping the bat, too?” Tweek asked, surprised.

“Of course,” Craig said. After seeing the confused look on Tweek’s face, he continued. “For self defense. You don’t have anything, and one of us should.”

Tweek hadn’t considered that. He never felt the need to carry about anything for self defense, they were all too dangerous or heavy, or a waste of space, since Tweek knew he would never use them. His method was to run, and it had worked so far. But since he was with Craig now, that wouldn’t work as well. Maybe the bat was for the best. 

“Okay. Well, let’s move on now, we still need to find food,” Tweek reminded him. 

Craig nodded, and pulled the bag on his shoulders. “I’m ready, let’s go.”

This time, they talked a bit and they walked, both of their moods improved. They had found Craig a bag, and the day was looking pretty bright.

Five hours later, Tweek was feeling a little less optimistic. They had only found two cars, both of which had nothing of note, and a barn, which was completely empty except for years old hay. They had walked to the stream, just to stock up on water, but they had yet to find more food, besides the sunflower seeds.

“We need to find something quick,” Tweek said. “I know I’m hungry, I’ve just had a couple protein bars for the past couple of days, and I feel like you must be much worse off.”

Craig nodded, and popped a couple more sunflower seeds in his mouth. He had started eating some a little bit ago, after his stomach had started growling. “Not to be a baby, but I’m fucking hungry.”

“It’s going to get dark soon, but we have maybe an hour left, we’ve got to find something,” Tweek said.

They picked up their pace, hoping to find something. Tweek really didn’t want to sleep out in the open that night, especially not when they were both so hungry. 

“Holy shit, is that a fucking house?” Craig asked, pointing in the distance. Tweek could make out a vague box shape, which definitely could be a house.

“I hope so,” Tweek said, forcing himself into a run. As they got closer, they could make out that it actually was a house, and it was it’s in time, because the sun was starting to set. “God, and I hope there aren’t any fucking zombies in there.”

The house was two stories, and wasn’t huge, but as long as it something in it, Tweek would be happy.

They got to the front door, and Craig pulled out his bat. He nodded at Tweek, and he threw open the door. They went in slowly, looking all around, watching out for a zombie. The house pretty clean, for being two years after the apocalypse started, but there was a lot of dust and cobwebs, so Tweek would believe it had been empty for awhile. They walked around the first floor, but didn’t find any zombies, or hear anything moving around.

Tweek let out a breath of relief. “I think we’re good.”

Craig lowered his bat, “Sweet. Let’s look and see what they’ve got.”

The kitchen was nice, and modern, like it had been redone fairly recently. It was sad, considering whatever family had been living there probably hadn’t gotten to enjoy it for very long. Tweek shook his head, trying to get rid of the weird thought. People were dead, everywhere, he couldn’t be getting hung up on every single person he thought about. 

There were some long rotten and decayed bananas on the counter, which was actually a good sign that there would be more food nearby. 

Craig opened the cabinets, finding silverware, and plates, and cups. Finally he called out. “They have granola bars! And cereal, but that’s probably nasty by now.”

Tweek looked in the pantry, and held back tears upon seeing the heaps of canned food there. “There are cans of food! And rice! Oh, they have beans, I don’t even like beans, but I’m pretty sure I’ll love them now.”

Tweek was shocked when arms wrapped around him, and squeezed. His zombie apocalypse survival skills were saying he was about to be killed, but then he realized it was just Craig. Hugging him. It was such a strange feeling, he hadn’t been hugged in years, and he had never thought of Craig as the hugging type. It was nice, though, and Tweek understood how happy he was. He returned the hug, wrapping his arms around Craig’s middle. 

“We have food,” Craig said happily. “Thank fucking god.”

Tweek nodded in reply, and they pulled apart after a few moments. “Okay, let’s eat some of this.”

They had a fabulous dinner of canned fruit salad, and baked beans, which would have been weird, years ago, but was the best thing Tweek had eaten in months. 

“I didn’t know how much I missed pineapples until now,” Craig said, stabbing another piece with a fork and eating it.

Tweek too a spoonful of beans, and nodded in agreement. They were sat at the island in the middle of the kitchen, on barstools, with the food poured out in bowls between them. They had also found an unopened bottle of juice in the pantry, and decided to drink it, not caring how out of date it was. They each had a glass of juice, and Tweek was about to go for seconds. He felt so fancy, which was funny considering they were as far from a dinner party as they could get. Two boys, both very dirty do to days (if not years in Craig’s case) without bathing, wearing clothes that were just as dirty. Neither of them were paying any attention to table manners, and the food was straight of cans. It still felt amazing, and Tweek wished this could be his life, every day.

 

They decided to sleep in the house, for that night, since it was too late for them to go looking for anything else. Craig pushes furniture in front of the front door, so no zombies could break in, while Tweek made sure the windows were tightly closed and the curtains were drawn. They both felt safer downstairs, together in the living room, so Craig took the couch, which Tweek took the lazy boy chair. There were a couple of decorative candles around the living room, which Tweek lit up for lighting, and then kept the lighter, in case they might need it in the future. 

“I used to love watching movies, and TV,” Craig said, looking at the television, which was useless now. 

“What was your favorite movie?” Tweek asked.

“Night of the Living Dead, of course,” Craig replied immediately, completely deadpan. It took a couple of minutes for him to think of his actual answer. “It’s a little cliche, but I really loved The Shawshank Redemption. I just loved the story, the little bits made it so interesting. I was probably fifteen when I first saw it, and once it was over I just lamented the fact that I hadn’t seen it early, that I had wasted fifteen years not watching it. Now that seems kind of funny, since I’ll never be able to see it again. Do you ever think about that? Like, even if we stay alive, life will never go back to how it was. We’ve lost so much, we’ll never be able to have it again. We’ll never be able to build a skyscraper, even though that was widely known knowledge, before, and easy enough to complete, as long as you had the means and the supplies. We can’t do that anymore.”

Tweek has thought about that a lot. He had spend a lot of time thinking about everything they had lost. “I’ve thought about stuff like that, I think anyone who is left has, but it just makes you feel like shit. I know you can’t just forget about stuff, but it helps to think about other things. That’s why I focus a lot on getting food, or planning out my day, so I don’t have to fall into my own sad thoughts.”

“You’re so much better at this apocalypse shit than I am. It’s like I just landed here, and I’m not prepared at all for it,” Craig replied.

“That’s not true, I’m sure you’re better in a lot of different ways. Like earlier, I wouldn’t have thought at all about keeping the bat. I’m not good at self defense, I just run away and hope I don’t get caught. You’ll fight back, though,” Tweek said, curling up even tighter in his sleeping bag.

“Yeah, but who got turned into a zombie?” 

“Who got turned back into a human?” Tweek retorted.

Craig sat up on his elbows, and looked at Tweek, observing him. “I’m glad it was you, who turned me back. This could have got in so many different ways.”

“I’m glad you were the zombie. Zombies aren’t the only monsters, in the apocalypse. I’ve met a few different humans who are just as murderous, even though they still have their rational thought. The apocalypse fucks with people, but I’m glad you’re not like that.”

Tweek could go on, but he decided that was enough deep thoughts for the night. They’d have a lot of time to talk, and think about life, they shouldn’t waste it all so quickly. 

“Goodnight, Tweek,” Craig said, laying back down.

“Goodnight, Craig,” Tweek replied, closing his eyes and drifting to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!!! Let me know what you thought! Also you can follow me [here](http://louiswolves.tumblr.com/) on tumblr, if you want.
> 
> Next chapter should definitely be interesting, these past couple have been building up the story and Craig and Tweek a lot, but (bit of a spoiler) next chapter there will be a new character!!! Wooo!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kind of ironic that it took me so long to update a fic called "Fast". I hope there are still some people willing to read it! There's still a lot more to come! Anyways, you can find me [here on Tumblr](http://louiswolves.tumblr.com/) , if you want to remind me to post an update, or just see me reblog some cat pictures.

Tweek was reluctant to leave the house the next morning, even though he knew they couldn’t stay, since it was so dangerous, just sitting and waiting for the zombies to pounce. He wished he could stay in the house for the rest of his life, with a magical supply of food and Craig by his side. Life didn’t work that way, though, and they left about an hour after sunrise, after stocking up on as much food as they could realistically carry.

The morning was peaceful, the weather pleasant and the road they were following was mostly flat. After about an hour of walking in silence, Craig said, “I spy, with my little eye, something green.”

“I Spy, Craig? Really?” Tweek asked, amused. He hadn’t played I Spy in at least ten years.

“Yep.” Craig replied. 

Tweek laughed, “Literally everything is green. We’re outside.”

“You’re just saying that because you suck at the game. The sky is blue,” Craig countered.

Tweek gave in, and looked around for something green. He was pretty sure it wasn’t a particular tree, or blade of grass, because that would be a pretty bring game, so he looked for something else green.

“That mailbox?” Tweek guessed, gesturing at the mailbox they were passing.

“Nope,” Craig replied, not giving any other clues.

“The shutters on that house?” 

Craig shook his head.

Tweek looked behind then, wondering if they had already passed it. “The porta-potty?”

“Got it,” Craig admitted. “Your turn.”

“I spy, with my little eye, something grey,” Tweek said, after seeing a grey door on a house a short distance away from them.

“Bird,” Craig guessed.

“No,” Tweek answered. He didn’t even think there were any birds around him that were grey in the first place.

Craig took a couple minutes to look around, and then took a sharp breath. Tweek assumed he had figured it out, but the Craig said, “You weren’t talking about that zombie, were you?”

Tweeks heart nearly shot out of his chest. He turned to look in the direction Craig was facing and spotted the zombie. They were still a safe distance away, and the zombie hadn’t noticed them yet, so Tweek pulled them behind a couple of trees in a nearby lawn, to hide.

“No, I wasn’t talking about the zombie, goddammit,” Tweek said. He could feel his heartbeat in his ears. They both knew they couldn’t stay hidden behind the trees. Tweek had to try to save it, but he was still terrified. 

“Just go up and bite it, and get it over with,” Craig said, sensing Tweek’s distress.

“ACK, I can’t do it! I’ll die! Oh holy shit, I think it heard me,” Tweek wailed. The zombie had turned its head in their direction, even though they were hidden behind multiple trees. It slowly started walking their way. Tweek had lost all of his courage that he had built up over the past couple days, and all the things he had said to himself previously no longer worked, not when he was faced with an actual zombie. 

“Looks like he’s coming to us,” Craig said. “You have to suck it up and go for it, so it doesn’t get us first. Just don’t get bit, and I’ll come knock him out if he doesn’t turn,” Craig said, swinging his bat around, slightly menacingly, which didn’t help because Tweek was pretty sure a fucking bat wouldn’t scare a zombie away.

“Just don’t get bit? JUST DON’T GET BIT? What the fuck, Craig? How do you fucking do that? Why don’t you try not getting fucking bit, god.” Tweek was terrified, and shaking badly. How would he have the control to avoid getting bit, while being that close to a zombie? The zombie only had one goal, and that was to eat him, and it was really hard to stop a zombie from doing that.

Craig observes Tweek for a moment, and then looked back towards the zombie, which was enclosing on them. “Okay,” he said simply, then dropped his bat and walked toward the zombie.

Tweek could only watch in horror as Craig approached the zombie. The zombie was watching Craig, too, and it stumbled toward him at a slightly faster pace. Well, as fast as it could go, because Tweek noticed that it was missing its entire left foot, which left him limping badly. Once Craig was within about ten feet of the zombie, he sprinted to it, and grabbed its arm, biting down swiftly, before the zombie had anytime to react.

Before he even realized he was doing it, Tweek was running toward Craig, ready to bite the zombie again, in case it didn’t work for Craig. He was half convinced they would both be zombies by the time Tweek got to them, and Tweek would be next. He was shocked to see that Craig was still intact when he reached them, and was almost smiling.

“It worked,” Craig told Tweek, gesturing toward the zombie, who was now laying on the ground, but no longer grey and rotting. Tweek was amazed. “You didn’t tell me how bad it tasted, though, I might barf.”

“What did you think it would taste like? Zombies are fucking gross, man,” Tweek said, but then felt guilting when he saw the newest former zombie in the ground, and added, “No offense.”

“What the fuck is going on?” The former zombie asked, looking between Tweek and Craig.

“I wish we knew,” Craig said solemnly. “Long story short, you were a zombie, we made you not a zombie.”

“Are you messing with me?” The man asked, beginning to look angry. 

Tweek shook his head, and pulled a protein bat out of his bag, and held it out to the man. “Eat this, it’ll make you feel better, I’m sure your hungry.”

The man took the protein bar, and opened it, still looking at then skeptically. 

“I used to be a zombie, too,” Craig said, sitting down on the down, across from the zombie. Tweek followed suit.

“Are you full of shit?” The man asked.

“Maybe. But I think you remember it. For me, it was all a blur. I just remember being hungry, wanting food. Sometimes getting food. It’s horrible, but luckily for the most part I don’t remember it. I do remember before I was a zombie. I remember the zombie outbreak starting, and the world falling to shit. I bet you do, too,” Craig told him, Tweek assumes he was trying to get the man to remember something, that would make him realize he actually was a zombie. Tweek didn’t have any experience in that matter, so he stayed quiet.

The man looked at the ground, and took a bite out of his protein bar. 

“Holy shit, I was actually a zombie? What the fuck,” The man said, clearly shocked.

“Yeah,” Craig replied. “But the cool thing is that you aren’t one, anymore. Yay.”

The yay Craig added on at the end was the least enthusiastic yay Tweek had ever heard.

“Anyways,” Tweek said, trying to move on, “I’m Tweek, and this is Craig. What’s your name?”

“I’m Stan,” he replied. “Now that I’m here, uh. What’s next? Where do I go? Do you guys have some sort of base set up? In a community with a bunch of survivors? I’m pretty sure that’s what I was doing, before the whole zombie thing.”

Tweek was surprised that the man was taking it as well as he was. He wasn’t sure how well Craig had taken it, immediately after he had been turned, since Tweek had passed out, but overall he had taken it well. Tweek had kind of assumed that was an anomaly. 

“No, not exactly. It’s just us. I don’t know how long you’ve been a zombie, but it’s been two years since it started. There aren’t a lot of people left,” Tweek explained. He felt bad, because he knew whatever experience Stan had before he had been turned must have been much better than the life he would have to live now. Times had changed, and the quality of life has drastically decreased. Tweek was the only one of the three of them that got to experience it gradually, bothe Craig and Stan had been just tossed in the middle of the worst of it. Life was going to be hard, and Tweek felt a double sense of guilt for bringing both of them into it.

“Two years?” Stand exclaimed. “Shit. It had only been a month after the zombies started, as far as I remember. Two years? Are you sure it’s been so long?”

Tweek nodded reluctantly. Stan had barely been in the apocalypse, and now he was dropped two years in, and without a foot. It was going to be rough. Speaking of his foot, Tweek noticed that zombies didn’t regrow limbs when changed back into people, like they did skin. Where the large, wound of a bloody stump had been instead of his foot, Stan now had clean, smooth skin covered where his foot would have been. Tweek wasn’t sure if he noticed. How were they going to go anywhere? There’s no was Stan could keep up with them, not at the pace they had been walking. Tweek started to stress out, trying to figure out what they could do. They needed to get somewhere safe for that night, would they be able to make it?

“Tweek,” Craig said, pulling him out of his thoughts, “Why don’t we go fill up a water bottle for Stan? There’s a stream nearby, you can just hang out here, and watch our stuff, while we go stock up on water.”

Stan nodded, and took another bite of his protein bar.

Tweek felt numb, and he followed Craig to the stream, a couple water bottles in his hands. He was internally breaking down.

“Hey, Tweek,” Craig said, stopping and putting his hands on Tweek’s shoulders to stop him, too, and turn him so they were face to face. “Calm down, I know you’re freaking out. Are you worried he can’t walk?”

Tweek nodded, “We can’t keep going, not at our pace, but how are we going to survive?”

“We’re going to make it, I promise. We’ll just have to do it different. There are three of us, now, and I think we can probably turn any zombie into a human. We should probably set up a base, shouldn’t we? Find a big building, where we can fill it out. We can grow our own food, that kind of stuff. I think that’s the way to do it. We can’t just go on this nomad lifestyle forever, especially not now,” Craig said. He had evidently been thinking about this, and had a better plan than anything Tweek’s frazzled brain could come up with.

Tweek let himself consider it. Staying in the same location went against his zombie survival instincts, but since there was probably going to be a growing them, it might actually be a survivable option. “Okay, we can try it.”

Craig smiled, and Tweek couldn’t help but think how lovely he looked smiling, but before he could reply to Tweek, Stan called out. “Holy shit, guys, we need to go, there’s a lot of zombies, coming this way.”

Stan was struggling to stand up, and failing. Behind him, Tweek could see the zombies. It was terrifying. Ere must have been at least twenty of them, far more than they could handle, even with the biting abilities. They needed to run.

Craig must have been on the same page as Tweek, because they both ran back to Stan, each of them grabbing an arm and pulling him up. Stan wrapped his arms around their shoulders once he was standing, and they grabbed their bags and took off. They couldn’t move early as fast as they wanted to, not when Stan was being supported between the two of them, but they had a decent head start om the zombies, and were still moving faster than a normal zombie could.

“Did you bring your friends with you?” Craig asked Stan as they stumbled along. “Nice of them, for so many to show up.”

“Craig!” Tweek scolded him, “You know this isn’t the time to be making stupid comments.”

Craig sighed, but didn’t say anything else.

“I know this sucks,” Tweek told them, “But we’re all alive, for now at least. Let’s find a secure house to hide in, and spend the night here. Hopefully, the zombies move on. We can plan there, and hopefully come up with a good solution for the future. But for now, just remember you’re alive, and even though we’re being chased by a horde of zombies, this is the most hopeful I’ve been in two years. We have a fighting chance, now.”

“That was probably the weirdest inspirational speech I’ve ever heard, but it’s on par with everything else that’s been happening today, so I’ll trust you,” Stan said. “I also just wanted to say sorry for this whole foot thing. You guys could have run off without me and let the zombies have me. I’m glad you didn’t.”

“It’d be pretty counterproductive, considering we just unzombiefied you,” Craig pointed out.

Tweek was running for his life, but it had been true, when he had said this was the most hopeful he had ever felt. They could cure zombies now. Tweek wasn’t alone. Craig was a gift, keeping him company, and encouraging him to save others. Now that they had Stan with them, too, Tweek knew they could save others too. Life still sucked, and it was going to for a long time, but the thought of living without zombies one day kept Tweek moving forward.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! Let me know what you thought!


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